Pulsenet Timeline
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PulseNet is a national laboratory network that connects foodborne illness cases to detect outbreaks. PulseNet uses DNA fingerprinting, or patterns of bacteria making people sick, to detect thousands of local and multistate outbreaks. Since the network began in 1996, PulseNet has improved our food safety systems through identifying outbreaks early. This allows investigators to find the source, alert the public sooner, and identify gaps in our food safety systems that would not otherwise be recognized. E. coli O157:H7 is first recognized as a significant human pathogen. 1984 Pulsed-field gel electrophoresis (PFGE), the current gold standard for DNA fingerprinting, is developed by Schwartz and Cantor. 1993 E. coli O157:H7 causes a major outbreak in the Western US states. 1994 CDC and several state health laboratories demonstrate the utility of 1995 PFGE for detecting and investigating » The concept of PulseNet takes outbreaks of foodborne disease. shape in discussions between CDC, the Association of Public Health Laboratories (APHL), state public 1996 health laboratories and federal » CDC launches PulseNet with partners. the APHL, federal partners, and the original area public health » CDC provides $150,000 to PulseNet laboratories in Massachusetts, to conduct an initial project Minnesota, Texas, and Washington. demonstrating its effectiveness. » The first PulseNet training for standardized PFGE and analysis 1997 of patterns is organized at CDC. » PulseNet detects an outbreak of The area laboratories and the U.S. E. coli O157:H7 in Colorado linked to Department of Agriculture Food frozen ground beef from a Nebraska Safety and Inspection Service processing plant. Twenty-five million (USDA) laboratories attend. pounds of potentially contaminated ground beef are recalled. » CDC establishes the Epidemiology Laboratory Capacity (ELC) building program. This program funds public health laboratories to join PulseNet. 1998 PulseNet is honored by the Vice » The U.S. Food and Drug President of the United States at a Administration’s (FDA) Center for Food White House ceremony. Safety and Applied Nutrition (CFSAN) laboratory joins PulseNet. 1999 » The National Food Safety Initiative is PulseNet wins the Innovations in established, detailing how $43.2 million American Government Award, is to be used to strengthen food safety recognizing excellence and creativity in the US. PulseNet becomes one of in the public sector. the first CDC-established networks that this initiative supports. 2000 PFGE analysis software is provided 2001 by APHL to all existing PulseNet PulseNet becomes a nationwide laboratories allowing the creation of system: all 50 state public health organized databases. laboratories are trained and certified in PFGE. 2002 PulseNet wins the prestigious Innovations in American Government Award for the second time. 2004 2005 CDC pilots the Listeria Initiative in » Manufacturers introduce the 10 states to aid in the investigation first commercially available next- of listeriosis clusters detected by generation DNA sequencing system. PulseNet, decreasing the time from Next-generation sequencing detection to stopping the outbreak. technologies will shape the future of PulseNet and accelerate outbreak 2006 detection. PulseNet links contaminated » PulseNet integrates multiple bagged spinach to a large multistate locus variable number tandem outbreak of E. coli O157:H7, prompting repeat analysis (MLVA) as a a nationwide recall. The outbreak genotyping tool for E. coli O157:H7 sickens 225 people in 27 states and and Salmonella enterica serotype causes 39 cases of kidney failure and Typhimurium. 5 deaths. 2009 PulseNet links peanut butter and peanut products to a multistate outbreak of Salmonella Typhimurium. The infection sickens over 700 people in 46 states and causes 9 deaths. More than 3,000 2010 types of peanut-containing products are Whole genome sequencing is used for recalled. the first time in an ongoing outbreak investigation. PulseNet performs real- time sequencing on three samples from a Vibrio cholerae outbreak that killed thousands in Haiti. 2011 » PulseNet begins analyzing data using bioinformatics, which combines biology, 2013 computers, and information technology PulseNet scientists begin using whole in a single discipline to answer pressing genome sequencing methods, along public health questions. » 250 historic isolates of Shiga-toxin with enhanced disease investigation, to producing E. coli (STEC) are sequenced study foodborne illnesses caused by to prove the utility of whole genome Listeria. sequencing for surveillance of foodborne pathogens. » Congress passes the FDA Food Safety Modernization Act (FSMA) and directs CDC to expand national foodborne disease surveillance systems. 2014 » CDC launches the “Transforming Public Health Microbiology – PulseNet and 2015 Beyond” project under the Advanced » The Listeria study receives the CDC Molecular Detection (AMD) initiative, Director’s Award for Innovation which aims to consolidate most » CDC routinely uses whole genome foodborne pathogen identification sequencing for investigating and characterization activities into a foodborne illnesses caused by Listeria, single, fast, and efficient whole genome Campylobacter, Shiga toxin-producing sequencing process. E. coli, and Salmonella. » The Listeria whole genome sequencing study, that began in 2013, receives the 2016 Department of Health and Human » Whole genome sequencing is used Services (HHS) Innovates Secretary’s for routine surveillance of Listeria, Pick award for implementing an Campylobacter, and Shiga toxin- innovative strategy to address an producing E. coli (STEC). emerging public health challenge. » PulseNet can analyze Salmonella whole genome sequencing data to investigate outbreaks. » The American Journal of Preventive 2017 Medicine publishes an economic evaluation that suggest that PulseNet » Whole genome sequencing will be used prevents at least 270,000 illnesses for routine surveillance of Salmonella from Salmonella, E. coli, and Listeria and in states that have the capacity to saves $500,000 US dollars every year. conduct sequencing. » PulseNet will be able to analyze Vibrio and Shigella whole genome sequencing data. 2018 2020 and Beyond 2020 » PulseNet will be able to analyze Yersinia and Cronobacter whole genome PulseNet will use highly sophisticated sequencing data. approaches designed to identify and » All 50 state public health laboratories subtype foodborne pathogens directly will be using whole genome sequencing from complex clinical samples, without for routine surveillance. bacterial cultures. The favored approach, » Whole genome sequencing will become known as metagenomics, has the the new PulseNet gold standard for potential to allow extraction of subtyping pathogens that cause pathogen-specific DNA sequence foodborne illness. information directly from complex samples such as stool. Before PulseNet 5 years 10 years 20 years The Future of PulseNet U.S. Department of Health and Human Services Centers for Disease Control and Prevention CS263215B.